The Whole Delivery

Our government continues to love murderous mercenaries who caused serious harm to our nations troops because of their pestilent actions. From Mr. Ackerman : Never mind the dead civilians. Never mind the stolen guns. Never mind the murder arrests, the fraud allegations, and the accusations of guards pumping themselves up with steroids and cocaine. Through a “joint venture,” the notorious private security firm Blackwater has won a piece of a five-year State Department contract worth up to $10 billion, Danger Room has learned. Apparently, there is no misdeed so big that it can keep guns-for-hire from working for the government. And this is despite a campaign pledge from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ban the company from federal contracts. The State Department is so silent about this so far, that they have yet to indicate this news on their website as of this post. And no one in the State Department's Press Briefing today asked about this to Assistant Secretary Philip J. ...

Photo from the AFP The arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar 10 days which broke last night thanks to the New York Times has strengthened the already strong handling of terrorism under the Obama Administration, to the dismay of ridiculous partisan critics. But the outstanding national security journalist that is Spencer Ackerman focuses on a crucial point that can't be hammered home enough. And it, for my mind, is more pertinent than even this arrest . 5. Will the Obama administration allow Baradar to be tortured? As I wrote on my personal blog, it’s crucial that the U.S. and the Pakistanis show that a high-level Taliban commander be treated respectfully if it hopes to induce more surrenders and impact the Taliban’s calculus on continuing to fight. Interrogations of Baradar are, reportedly, a joint Pakistani and U.S. venture . But the Pakistanis torture. Will the Obama administration, in its first big overseas capture, successfully convince the Pakistanis to treat Baradar hum...